After a major united demonstration on Sunday in the capital, students in turn gathered on Monday to question the rapprochement between Rabat and Tel Aviv in 2020.
In Morocco, the mobilization against the re-establishment of official ties with Israel is escalating. For the first time since the normalization of 2020, the student community led, on Monday, October 7, “a coordinated action on a national scale”, bringing together several thousand people in around forty universities and higher education institutions, including the one where Crown Prince Moulay Al-Hassan studies in Rabat, according to a leader of the movement. The day before, a united march brought together several tens of thousands of demonstrators in the Moroccan capital, while other actions are planned this week.
A year after the Hamas attack in Israel, which left nearly 1,200 dead and resulted in the capture of more than 250 hostages, according to an official report – triggering the Israeli offensive in Gaza in retaliation – it is not It is exaggerated to speak of disunity between some Moroccans and the initiative of King Mohammed VI.
The sovereign had personally formalized the rapprochement in broad daylight with the Hebrew state, putting an end to the informal relationship that had lasted for twenty years between the two countries. However, according to a survey conducted between December 2023 and January 2024 by the Arab Barometer research network, only 13% of Moroccans surveyed still said they were in favor of this warming of relations. They were 31% in 2022 and 41% in 2021.
“Shame on my government”
There is no doubt that this distancing has increased since then, with the human toll in Gaza exceeding 41,000 deaths, according to Hamas and international organizations. The range of dissonant voices has also expanded.
The disapprovals no longer come only from the popular classes, the youth, activists, intellectuals, political parties, or unions. They come from celebrities, like the star of the national football team, Hakim Ziyech, who recently ranked in the top 10 of the favorite personalities of Moroccans. “Shame on my government which supports the genocide [in Gaza] “, he wrote on September 21 on Instagram, reaping in return the criticisms or the praises of a press itself divided.
Approved at the highest level, without consulting Parliament, the agreement of December 22, 2020, the day of the joint declaration between Morocco, the United States, and Israel, is more contested than ever. By gaining in exchange the recognition by Washington and Tel Aviv of its sovereignty over Western Sahara, Rabat nevertheless hoped to rally a public opinion historically wary of any alliance with the Hebrew state.
To achieve this, the consent of the Islamists was essential: the head of government was a figure from the Justice and Development Party (PJD), Saad-Eddine Al-Othmani, who signed the text sealing the normalization. “Territorial integrity”, the totem of Morocco’s foreign policy, came first, even for the fiercest detractors of Israel. The king had also warned: without being conditional on it, the institutionalization of relations with Tel Aviv had to be done in respect of the “legitimate rights” of the Palestinians to a State. “But the post-October 7 era broke this consensus,” says an opposition MP. The PJD has since recognized its “mistake. “
No formal protest
At the podium of the United Nations General Assembly on September 24 in New York, the current Moroccan Prime Minister, Aziz Akhannouch, assured that “the interest that we attach to the internal affairs of our country cannot distract us from of the tragedy of the Palestinian people. Nevertheless: this position of principle, which constitutes the axiom of the Palace, acts as a mantra. Neither resolved nor evaded, despite the Abraham Accords of 2020 and 2021, which linked Israel to four Arab countries, including Morocco, the Palestinian question returned to the center of the news, returning the warnings of Rabat, after twelve months of war in Gaza, to what many analysts believe they are: formal demands.
“Yes, Morocco supports the creation of a Palestinian state and condemns the Israeli army’s violations of international law. But does this translate into diplomatic pressure on Israel? Officially, no,” observes Intissar Fakir, of the American think tank Middle East Institute. Like most Western or Arab capitals, Rabat is obeying pragmatic considerations, with no formal protest having been addressed to the Hebrew state’s liaison office in Morocco.
Certainly less demonstrative or even confidential, relations between the two countries have not experienced any major change, even at the height of the Israeli army’s assaults on Gaza. The technical stopover at the port of Tangier, on June 6 and 7, of the Komemiyut, a new 95-meter amphibious assault ship, one of the largest in the Israeli navy, is an illustration of this.
Authorized by Morocco, the docking of this vessel, which is to serve in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, was logically seen as a sign that the two countries “are continuing their military partnership, despite the protests and concerns related to the conflict,” underlines the NATO Defense College Foundation.
Humanitarian aid to Palestinians
It is therefore not surprising that Morocco, which, like the Hebrew State, enjoys the status of a major non-member ally of the Atlantic Alliance and participates in its interoperability platform, has become an important customer of the Israeli defense industry. It was its third supplier in 2023, with a market share close to that of France, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Already questioned before the siege of Gaza, the maintenance of this strategic cooperation fits less and less with the image of a monarch who strives to appear as the defender of the Palestinian cause. “Normalization will not be called into question, but the king has every interest in the fighting ending as quickly as possible,” believes a parliamentarian from the majority.
For Rabat, however, the post-October 7 narrative is quite different: its proximity to Tel Aviv would benefit Gazans. While a shipment of humanitarian aid from Morocco entered the enclave in March through the Israeli border crossing of Kerem Shalom, a source in the Moroccan foreign ministry claimed that it was the first time after five months of war that such a shipment had been made possible, adding that the operation was proof that ” Morocco’s relations with Israel serve the cause of peace and defend the rights of the Palestinians. “
